1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to small weapon systems, and more particularly, to methods for enabling safe/arm functionality within small weapons.
2. Prior Art
All weapon systems require fuzing systems for their safe and effective operation. A fuze or fuzing system is designed to provide as a primary role safety and arming functions to preclude munitions arming before the desired position or time, and to sense a target or respond to one or more prescribed conditions, such as elapsed time, pressure, or command, and initiate a train of fire or detonation in a munition.
Fuze safety systems consist of an aggregate of devices (e.g., environment sensors, timing components, command functioned devices, logic functions, plus the initiation or explosive train interrupter, if applicable) included in the fuze to prevent arming or functioning of the fuze until a valid launch environment has been sensed and the arming delay has been achieved.
Safety and arming devices are intended to function to prevent the fuzing system from arming until an acceptable set of conditions (generally at least two independent conditions) have been achieved.
A significant amount of effort has been expended to miniaturize military weapons to maximize their payload and their effectiveness and to support unmanned missions. The physical tasking of miniaturization efforts have been addressed to a great extent. However, the same cannot be said regarding ordnance technologies that support system functional capabilities, for example for the case for fuzing.
It is important to note that simple miniaturization of subsystems alone will not achieve the desired goal of effective fuzing for smaller weapons. This is particularly the case in regards to environmental sensing and the use of available stimuli in support of “safe” and “arm” functionality in fuzing of miniature weapon technologies.
A need therefore exists for the development of methods and devices that utilize available external stimuli and relevant detectable events for the design of innovative miniature “safe” and “arm” (S&A) mechanisms for fuzing of gravity dropped small weapons.